Nanami's Little Bar
by STRIKESTWICE
Summary: Nanami attempts to start her own bar as mystery and intrigue swirl around her.


Nanami's Little Bar  
  
Chapter 1  
  
By STRIKESTWICE@hotmail.com  
  
"Your not even old enough to serve drinks, why do you want to a bar." Makoto asked trying to remove his arm from the firm grip of Nanami's hand.  
  
"There's no such law in Floristica, I checked." Nanami gazed proudly at the run down building they stood outside of.   
  
The dilapidated building's sign sat crooked, held up by only one nail, almost obstructing the entrance. Battered and abused the building had seen better days. The paint had long since flaked off into the mounds of garbage that surrounded the building. Not a single window remained, though most had been bordered up to save the interior from water damage.  
  
A strong wind, channeled by the artificial canyons of the buildings on the street, pushed debry around them and finally tore off the sign. Makoto watched it fall heavily to the ground, throwing up a cloud of dust around the two Wanderers.  
  
Makoto gazed at Nanami for a second and then started walking down the road away from the building.  
  
"Where are you going." Nanami asked, politely while applying a sleeper hold onto the scientists.  
  
"There is no way I'm investing in that!" Makoto yelled, trying to break free.  
  
"Have I ever been wrong, I'm telling you this smells of money."  
  
"Then use your own money." Makoto gasped out, trying to break the hold with out hurting Nanami. *She has been spending too much time with Shayla!* He thought as his frantic fraying failed to dislodge her.  
  
"Nanami Enterprises Inc. is currently financially over extended."  
  
"You're not helping your case."  
  
"In two months my other investments will come in and I will be able to buy out your share, guaranteed." Nanami gave her most winning smile to the back of Makoto's head.  
  
"Let go of me." Nanami finally released Makoto and he turned around to look at her.  
  
"I know you can smell money, but if I just loaned you the cash then you..." He trailed off as Nanami started to run towards an alley. "What the..." The scientist whispered exacerbated under his breath as he started to run after the entrepreneur, trying not to step on anything.  
  
Two people stood in the alley a tall, very buff, male and a short, almost tiny, woman. As Makoto walked in to the alley, a dozen steps behind Nanami, the man hit the girl again slamming her to the ground.  
  
"Where is my money." The man kicked the girl hard in the chest flipping her onto her back. Before the eyes of the wanderer, the girl's form began to pale. The long brown hair that had adorned her head turning to a sickly white her dark Roshtarian tan fading to a bluish gray.  
  
"Leave her alone." Nanami yelled from the opening of the alley.   
  
"Stay out of this girl." The man growled turning towards the interference. He straightened his body to towering over Nanami. "This is none of your business."  
  
The female Wanderer, less then impressed, charged into the huge man's personal space, giving him a nasty glare.  
  
"Lady, I don't know what your problem is but..." The large man paused, noticing Makoto for the first time. "Mister Makoto, I didn't see you there."   
  
"It's been awhile D'ha. How is that water wheel working now?"  
  
"Fine my parents were so happy to have your help." He said unhappily.  
  
"They invited me for tea again, I think there trying to set me up with your sister. I was going to decline, but..." He trailed off suggestively.  
  
"This isn't what it looks like." The big man chuckled. "The phantom is a member of my household, she stole from me."  
  
Nanami backed away from the man a little off guard by the fact that Makoto knew this bully. Next to Nanami the Phantom Tribe girl moaned, the wanderer knelt down into the trash and helped the other woman up to a sitting position.  
  
D'ha walked over to Makoto and began to talk to him as Nanami pulled out her handkerchief and wiped blood from the Phantom girls lips. Nanami felt a slight change in the air as if it had a little more electricity, a feeling she had learned to associate with a Phantom Tribe member using their power.  
  
"That doesn't work on me." Nanami told the girl, still dabbling at the blood. The Wanderer stared into the other girl's eyes and then cautiously helped the girl to her feet.  
  
"What's your name?" The entrepreneur asked the woman.  
  
"Sace, mistress."  
  
"None of that mistress stuff, my name is Nanami."  
  
"The True Seer." The young woman pulled back as if Nanami had turned into a snake.  
  
"Hey Nanami," Makoto waved at her from outside of the alley. The other man gone from sight. He walked towards the two girls carefully choosing his steps in a pointless effort to keep his already soiled shoes clean.  
  
"Well Nanami seems you have the first employee for your bar." Makoto said giving her a lopsided smile. He paused and gave the dark hair girl now looking not more then ten, a hard long stare. "You were more lovely as your true self."  
  
"So what happened, are you going to loan me the money."  
  
"I'm now the proud owner of one indentured servant and you are going to give her a job so she can pay off the contract. A bar would be the perfect place, don't you think?"  
  
"You won't regret it." Nanami told him.   
  
Makoto gave her an odd little stare and shrugged. "It's only money."  
  
***  
  
Two weeks later and a ton of elbow grease, the Shinonome Bar was ready to be opened. The exterior of the building had received white washing and some windows. The interior had been worked on around the clock by a team of carpenters. A little mild bribe and the city had realized that it was their job to pick up the trash that had surrounded the bar. Another larger bribe and the mention of the princess' name had seen that all the permits were correctly stamped and sealed.  
  
In her rush to get everything ready for opening day Nanami had foregone remodeling most of the upper floors, well that and a lack of funding. All she had done was a quick cleaning and fumigation to remove a rather unpleasant smell and the previous residents. She had ignored the rest of the rooms but the one she had chosen as her new office.   
  
It was the remodeling of the office that had put her and Sace alone in the same room for extended periods of time. The young woman looking to anyone else like a child of ten but to Nanami's discerning eyes at least sixteen had been avoiding Nanami as much as possible for the past week. Sace working efficiently as possible and as far away from the Wanderer as the room would allow.  
  
The carpenters had already removed all of the rotten wood and replaced it with new wood, leaving the room filled with sawdust and oddly discolored planks. Both of the girls got to work dressed in clothes that were just better then rags and with bandanna's covering their hair. Sace grabbed a broom and started sweeping the dirt towards the door raising up huge billows of dust that darted around her bouncing off the woman's illusion. Nanami once again wondered what a normal human would see. She had never regretted being able to see through the phantoms illusions but she still wished that she had gained "Super Cooking Powers" rather then her current power. With out her power she would be dead now, but it was also a too fresh memory of the war.  
  
"Why do you keep up the illusion, when we're alone?" Nanami asked as she started to stir the light gray paint that would adorn the walls.  
  
"Mistress?" The girl looked up from her sweeping and then quickly averted her eyes to the ground when Nanami met them.  
  
"And stop calling me that!" Nanami almost yelled at the girl, who flinched back looking for a way to escape and finding her only way out blocked by Nanami.  
  
"Yes, miss... yes ma'am."  
  
"Well I guess that's a little better." Nanami gave the girl her winning smile. She tried a different track. "Keeping up that illusion must be tiring."  
  
The girl hesitated and then started sweeping again. The kicked up dust from the action still dancing oddly around her and the hair on the back of Nanami's arm started to tingle. Nanami sighed and went back to the paint. After it was properly stirred she went down the stairs and returned with some old sheets. With simple motions, she dropped the sheets around the edge of the walls. Nanami went back to the paint giving it a quick stir before caring it next to a corner. She readjusted her handkerchief on her head and started painting the walls with long firm practiced strokes.  
  
Sace walked back into the room and grabbed a brush before starting on the wall on the opposite side from Nanami. After five minutes of silence Nanami was growing bored and her shoulder blades were starting to itch.  
  
"Um... I keep forgetting to ask, where are you sleeping now." Nanami asked dodging a speck of wet paint.  
  
"With Master Makoto." Nanami dropped her brush onto the ground, causing paint to splatter around the room.  
  
"What!" The Phantom tried to run through the wall in front of her, right into the wet paint. The woman bounced off the wall and onto the ground Nanami stared in surprised shock at the teenager who was trying to hold back tears.  
  
Nanami reached forward to soothe the girl but she jerked away in fear. The Wanderer gazed at the other girl slightly saddened by her response, but also irritated.  
  
"For the last time I'm not going to kill you, Makoto though might be a different matter." As soon as she said it Nanami knew it was the wrong thing. The girl eyes stared at Nanami as if she might actually sprout another head and swallow Makoto whole. The girl's eyes hardened and then she sprang up off the ground and ran past Nanami. The entrepreneur had no idea what the workman on the first floor saw as the girl ran past them but she could hear the work below stop.  
  
Nanami hurried down the stairs after Sace, but was too slow to stop her from exiting the building. It didn't matter there was only one places she could go, straight to Makoto. This time of day the scientist was either at the university or on location fixing some ancient tech and if Nanami remembered right he had agreed to do a lecture all week on "Information Processing Systems" or something like that. So it was in the direction of the university she ran.  
  
***  
  
Makoto began finishing up his lecture by re-explaining how the new telegraph system worked with a simple example. Diplomats and visiting scientists looked on engrossed in his explanation of what was to him a hundred and fifty-year-old tech.  
  
He had been amazed that during the war they had relied on runners to send messages, between the nations. After all they had a flying car, well a floating one why didn't they have anything as simple as a telegraph. It was one of the first items he had first build after the war. A little test system, now he had a twenty man crew installing lines all over Roshtaria and soon if everything went well at this conference, in the other nations surrounding them. At a few million Roshtal's per a contract, he looked to make another large profit. In the next couple of years he would introduce radios, while not as secure as the telegraph the two combined would almost certainly increase the speed of the re-development of the war torn nations.  
He wrapped up thanking them for their time as Ma'ya circulated among the ambassadors smiling and flirting. As vice-president of Shinonome Industrial she was the chief financial manager of the company and one of the most well known individuals in all of Roshtaria. The tall ex-debutante, specialized in making sure that Shinonome Industrial managed to continually make a large profit off of Makoto's inventions.  
  
Sace burst through a group of diplomats and started trying to force her way through the crowd towards Makoto. *Why is she here?* He thought, wrapping up a conversation with a group of Dorasland dignities.  
  
"Sace is everything okay?" Makoto asked, going over to the girl.  
  
"Master..." She gasped for breath. "Master you must hide, she..." The doors that had been letting out a stream of people suddenly changed direction, allowing in Nanami who was gasping for breath. Sace shifted, he didn't know how she did it but suddenly she looked even smaller. This little girl maybe six tugged onto Makoto's arm trying to pull him towards the back door.  
  
"Hold on, now." Makoto said, latching onto the girl's hand. Nanami charged through the crowd forward reaching the other two. Sace still held strongly in his grip ducked behind Makoto. "Hi Nanami, how goes the renovation of the bar."  
  
"Fine Makoto, I was wondering where Sace was staying right now." Nanami said recalling a previous conversation with the Wanderer.  
  
***  
  
"Makoto, how can you possibly buy that girl and then tell her to work for me?" Nanami had waited until the two of them were alone before accosting him with questions.  
  
Makoto had stared at her and then asked her a question. "What do you think would happen to her if she was allowed to walk away?"  
  
"Maybe, she would go home."  
  
"Nanami, who do you think sold her in the first place, no she would end up on the street and with her abilities probably as a thief. Someone will notice that stuff starts disappearing when she's around and in a few months a year at the most she'll be just another body dumped on the street.  
  
"On the other hand if she starts out with a job works her way free in a year or so she will probably continue on working for you and never fall into that trap."  
  
"You have it all worked out, don't you. But things never turn out that simple, Makoto. You can't plan peoples lives as if they were just machinery."  
  
The girl ran behind Makoto and Nanami started to tingle again. Makoto's expression slowly began to change going from amusement to horror. He cringed back, covering the girl with his body. Nanami raised her hand and Makoto jerked away from the action, defensively. The room, that had suddenly been rapidly was now empty except for the three of them. Makoto began to back cautiously away from the other wanderer.  
  
Nanami was sure what was going on now, her skin was almost unbearably itchy the only time she had felt like this before was when Gallus had attacked them on the Eye of God. She was at the center of some illusion, an illusion that Makoto feared.  
  
"Makoto wake up, it's an illusion." Nanami yelled. The phantom tribe had never been good at using or covering sounds. The only one she knew who could successfully pull those off had been that cute little kid.  
  
Makoto blinked for a second and then fell back even faster dodging some unseen attack.  
  
Nanami was getting mad. This, this child was playing with Makoto's mind. Just like what Gallus had done to Rune. Nanami tried to calm herself, if she charged forward either her or Makoto would get hurt. She backed away from the other two until her leg hit a folding chair. Thinking quickly, Nanami grabbed the chair and started to run around the two trying to stop their escape through the rear door. Makoto obviously figured out what the illusion part of her was trying to do and grabbed Sace almost carrying her to the door. With hard won strength from running a cafe, Nanami threw the folding chair directly at Makoto at the same time she leaped forward tackling Sace.  
  
The chair hit Makoto squarely in the chest driving him back for a split second. The man started to panic looking at the place that the chair had impacted and began screaming. He fell to the ground rolling around as if his clothes were on fire, finally he stopped moving altogether.  
  
Beneath her Sace whimpered trying to crawl away from Nanami. The entrepreneur fed up with the entire matter slapping the girl across the face.  
  
The tingling-itchy feeling started to fade as the young girl beneath her started to cry. The large empty room echoing the girls sobbing, Sace looked up at Nanami tears and fear, such amazing fear, filling her eyes. The girl choked on one of her sobs and gasped for breath. The sound forced Nanami to action and she rolled off of the girl and went to check on Makoto.  
  
Nanami checked out her friend for any sign of wounds. Besides passing out, he appeared to be unharmed. She lowered an ear to his mouth and listened for signs of breathing glad to feel a soft breeze tickle her ear. Nanami took off Makoto's coat and folded it twice then placed it behind his head.  
  
Behind her the girl stood up still crying she walked up to look at Nanami. The entrepreneur started at the girl her anger rekindled again. "What did you do to him?" Nanami yelled as the girl backed away from her. "How... how could you?" She leaped up to grab the girl and missed the Phantom, who began running, disappearing out the door.  
  
"How could she?" Nanami felt a warm wetness slide down the side of her face. "How could she?"  
  
***  
  
It was a week later when Nanami felt that same tingling feeling again.   
  
Makoto had thankfully been unharmed after a good nights sleep. He remembered very little of what had happened, but the first night after the attack Nanami had stood watched over him as he had a number of nightmares screaming out her name as if she was dead.  
  
Nanami had tried, and failed to cool her anger towards Sace in the last week. When her skin started to tingle again it immediately caught her attention.  
  
The marketplace around her failed to notice the change. Hawkers still screamed the name and price of their wares. Children dodged animals and pedestrians, screaming and laughed in the same breath. The merchant she had been haggling with still bemoaning the future of his children if Nanami got her price she wanted for the goods. Everything was the same except that a phantom was near.  
  
Nanami looked around with out trying to be too obvious about it. A tall very-pale woman was walking through the crowd. Dark blue eyes seemed to almost hang by themselves in the pale blue woman's skin. Clothed in but a dark cloak, the hot summer sun was causing an almost continuous trickle of sweat down the side of her pale blue face.   
  
The woman was looking longingly at the carts full of food. Nanami wrapped up her remaining business quickly making sure that her purchases would be sent back to the cafe.  
  
She started to follow the woman through the crowds. The tall phantom was easy to make out in the market bustle. The woman stopped in front of a small building with a cooper's sign. She paused for a second cautiously and then ducked into the low alley beside the store.  
  
The wanderer hurried through the crowd until she reached the building. She stopped outside of the building feeling for illusions. Nothing, the tingling sensation was gone. Cautiously, Nanami walked into the dark alley only to feel an arm wrap around her chest and a knife press against her throat.  
  
Nanami froze her mind screaming. She could hear her own heart beat in her ears as adrenaline flooded her system. She started to shake slowly, *why is she waiting...*  
  
"Why are you following me?" The woman asked calmly. Nanami paused trying to think up a good answer. The woman impatiently pressed the knife closer to Nanami's neck.  
  
"I wanted to offer you a job."  
  
"Do I look like I need a job." The woman almost yelled at Nanami.  
  
The entrepreneur knew that she had erred, the illusion the woman must have enraptured herself in must have said wealth.  
  
"How about we talk about it over lunch, my treat." She used her greatest weapon available to her.  
  
"How about I kill you and leave your body here."  
  
"If you were going to kill me you would have already. Your not the type of person that's why you didn't use an illusion to steal in the market place." The second she said it Nanami realized she had said too much. The knife tightened against Nanami's throat.  
  
"How did, how did you know about the illusion?" The phantom paused thinking for a second. "You're the True Seer! You killed Gallus." The blade left her throat, and the woman turned Nanami around. "Well I guess I owe you for that." The woman sheathed her knife and gave Nanami a very pale smile. "You mentioned lunch?"  
  
Nanami paused feeling the adrenaline leave her body. "Yes." She felt her skin start to tingle as the woman once again cloaked herself in illusions that Nanami couldn't see. The woman confidently slid her dagger back into a hidden sheaf and walked out of the alley and into the market place. Nanami followed her back into the noise and press of bodies, taking the lead as she headed back to the cafe. Skillfully dodging casual pass buyers, obnoxious if just not down right mean animals, and small children with sticky fingers. The other woman trailing behind her in a small gap in the crowd maintained by illusion.  
  
Nanami turned another corner and the market noise and people fell behind. The two women entered the university and lower lord's section of town. Nestled in a small corner two blocks from the palace, in a place that Nanami would have never been able to afford if she hadn't been given it, was the Shinonome Cafe.  
  
Nanami walked through the front door and guided the phantom woman to a table. She turned to go tell Frame to fry us some eggs, only to see Fatora and Allele eyeing the woman she had come in with. Besides the princes, her attendants, and two bodyguards the room was empty. A lull between classes and the time the lords took their break for lunch.   
  
Two worn out and overworked bodyguards, one a young woman, with eyes of a cornered animal, and a young man eating a large late breakfast, sat fearfully in the booth next to Fatora.  
  
Nanami made a mental note to see that they both got seconds if they wanted them. Fatora's guards rarely lasted longer then a month or two before burning out and retiring to a less stressful job. Rumor had it that an entire company of elite commandos was made up of Fatora's previous body guards.  
  
"Hey Nanami, who's the good looking lady with you?" Fatora yelled exuberantly eyeing the phantom. The guards shifted slightly checking out the woman and then dismissing her as not a threat.  
  
"Yes, do tell." Allele said, she seemed to be in an even better mood then Fatora. There was a saying in the palace. "When Fatora is happy beware, and when Fatora and Allele are happy, run." They were up to something, Nanami was sure of it and today was not a day that Nanami had any patience for shenanigans.  
  
"Can you hold on for a second." Nanami asked as she ducked into the kitchen. Frame was tending the stove and looked up at Nanami's arrival.  
  
Frame's husband had been a captain in the Roshtarian Army before he died in the brief battle against the phantom tribe at the eye of god. With two small children, the royal pension had been less then adequate to support her.  
  
Nanami had been looking for a full time cook and had asked Lons if he could recommend one. Without blinking an eye he had recommended Frame. Then mentioned in an off hand way, and with a slight smile, that Frame could leave her children with the palace servants children why she worked at the cafe. It had taken Nanami a little investigating for a month or two but she had finally got the full story our of another guardsman.   
  
Seem Lal and Frame's husband hand both been lieutenants in the same campaign during the War of Dust, fifteen years before the Wanderers War. These two lieutenants had fought side by side in the dust bowl. During the time they swore oaths to help out each others families if one should survive the war and not the other. Both had survived the war, but Lons never forgot a promise and had been helping out Frame and her children after the husband had died.  
  
:"Frame can you make up two more breakfasts and please make sure that Fatora's guards get whatever they want."  
  
The older woman smiled, that motherly smile Nanami loved. "Two more breakfasts and I've already made sure that the guards were well taken care of."  
  
"You always read my mind." The older woman just waved her spoon at Nanami and smiled handing her two glasses of tea.  
  
Nanami ducked back into the dining area and to her guests. She breathed a sigh of relief that Fatora hadn't taken her absence as a chance to hit on her guest. Which could only mean that the princess wanted something else.  
  
Nanami passed the phantom one of the glasses full of tea. The woman sipped at it and then gratefully drank the tea as if she hadn't had anything to drink all day.  
  
"Nanami, I was hoping you had reconsidered my offer." Fatora asked the wander, from the other table.  
  
"I'm not sleeping with you!" The phantom choked on her tea and Nanami quickly patted her on the back.  
  
"No I meant about the Phantom Tribe." The women that Nanami had been patting on the back gave Fatora a hard look and the too casual then went back to sipping on her tea.  
  
"I heard about Makoto being injured by a phantom a few days ago. You have to know just how evil they are." Fatora almost yelled. "Roshtaria needs your help to try to find these perversions." Allele nodded her head in agreement with Fatora.  
  
"What did Princess Rune say?" Nanami asked fighting down her hatred of this entire subject. She wasn't some sort of Phantom Tribe hound and she wasn't going to be one for Fatora. The wanderer starred at the tall phantom woman sitting across from her. The woman's face was carefully expressionist but both of her hands were carefully out of sight.  
  
"She feels, wrongly, that the current security methods are adequate. But Rune doesn't know how evil they are, she wasn't tortured by them." Fatora actually looked dead serious, rather then her usual cockiness.  
  
"Fatora how can you say that. Rune was hurt by Gallus maybe not as much as you were, but she loved him." Fatora paused uncertain, but then charged forward.  
  
"See that proves that all the Phantom Tribe should be found and..." Fatora paused for breath. "Moved to a special area." Her eyes hardened and the unspoken words seemed to echo in the room.  
  
Nanami sipped on her tea, wanting more then anything to throw Fatora out of her cafe but the political ramifications would most likely mean the end of her business.  
  
The woman across from Nanami was studying her carefully, watching her face like it was a television. Nanami stared back at that imposing face failing to find any emotion in her eyes.  
  
"I'm sorry Fatora, but I'm trying to start a bar right now. I just don't have the time." Nanami gave the princess a depreciating smile.  
  
Frame walked out of the kitchen then carrying two breakfast specials the eggs still crackling from just being off the grill. She set the pair of dishes before Nanami and the cold phantom woman. The phantom looked hungrily at the meal, the first break in her mask of uninterest.  
  
Fatora knew when she was being politely told no. Some politician gene, long dormant, fought its way to the surface.  
  
"If this is about our previous relationship, I swear that this will be a completely professional partnering." Allele looked over at Fatora shocked at this outburst, so a-typical of Fatora and for the first time Nanami knew that the free spirited princess was still a princess at heart.  
  
Nanami put on a false smile, being the sister of a self proclaimed ruler of the world and an overall asshole, had taught her how to properly apologize with out really meaning it.  
  
"I just really don't have the time Princess, perhaps in a few months."  
  
The princesses nodded "I thank you for your time." She stood up and Allele and her guards scrambled to follow her action as Nanami stood as well. "You will still check the staff tomorrow." Fatora asked.  
  
Nanami sighed inwardly. "Of course because Rune asked me too." Nanami forced herself to stop from saying *At least now I know where that idea had come from.*  
  
Two months ago Princess Rune had sent for the Wanderer Nanami Jinnai, a new title for the Roshtarian court close to a knight or a minor lord. One of Rune's many presents for their help in the war. Both Mr. Fujisawas and Makoto had taken the title seriously each one helping Floristica in their own way. For Makoto it was helping the tech base and repairing technology that was left over from the ancients. Fujisawa had started Roshtaria's first fire department with a little help from Makoto they had two pump trucks and a station. Rumor had it that Fujisawa's team of fire fighters had saved over twenty lives in its six months of operations. Both of them had helped Roshtartia and were living up to the title of wanderer.  
  
Nanami had a cafe. She was supposed to be the one who had the business sense. Instead she was the one who seemed to be the one not living up to the title of Wanderer. That was why she had agreed to Princess Rune's request for her to do bi-monthly checks of the palace employees for Phantom Tribe Infiltration. At the time she had thought the request a little odd but now it made sense. Fatora must have been pressuring Rune for a while now.  
  
Fatora and her entourage left the cafe and Nanami let out a sigh of relief. She sat down and started picking at her food thinking for a second before looking across the table at her guest. The woman sat there still studying Nanami, the plate in front of her completely empty. Nanami slid her plate over to the woman, who looked at her for a second, and then quickly began to clean that plate too.  
  
"What's your name?" Nanami started out with the obvious. She had known the woman for over an hour now and still didn't know the answer to such a simple question.  
  
The woman gazed up at Nanami searching her face as if she was being asked to give up something precious. "Brig" the woman said it almost like a challenge and Nanami knew she was lying.   
  
"I'm Nanami" the wanderer paused uncertain how to continue. She had been thinking on her feet when the knife was at her throat and then Fatora had forced her to choose her words carefully. Now she was uncertain and tired, today had already been too stressful.  
  
"You mentioned a job?" The woman, Brig, had used the time Nanami had given used to collect her thoughts, the phantom had used to empty Nanami's plate and she was now leaning back in her chair contentedly sipping her tea.  
  
Frame walked out of the kitchen now that Fatora was gone. While she was immune to Fatora's constant sexual advances she still believed in the mystique surrounding the royal family. Nanami knew that by tomorrow her refusal of Fatora's offer would be common knowledge on the streets.   
  
One of the things that had shocked Nanami when she first hired Frame was that the women knew about her. Not as a wanderer but as one of the constant woman that Fatora tried to pick up on. The common folk, those, who didn't live or work in the palace, had almost a pride in their little radical princess. Detailed stories of her exploits were told at a number of bars. A basic paparazzi had appeared around her and a bi-weekly newspaper was published detailing her and princess Rune's life. Even a number of casinos' offered odds on who Fatora would attempt to get in her bed next and how they would go. Last time Nanami had looked she 1:10 odds of being attacked by Fatora and 1:60 of actually going all the way.  
  
The part that had amazed Nanami the most though was that Fatora or Rune could go slumming down the streets of Roshtaria with a few guards and be virtually ignored. On the other hand if they walked down the streets in full regalia people would appear out of nowhere and bring their concerns to the princesses. The only reasoning behind it was that the people of Floristica really loved their rulers.  
  
Gallus had been loved as well by the people, his murder and subsequent replacement. The betrayal had been considered a personal attack on Rune and his death when reported had been received with a satisfaction that would be hard to explain. The story of the battle between Gallus, Nanami, and Makoto was still the most re-told story at any bar. It had propelled Makoto from the odd wanderer to a national hero.  
  
Frame filled both their tea cups and sat down beside them, ringing her own cup. Her eyes aglow with new gossip, but still interested if Nanami was going to share anymore-spicy bits.  
  
"Right, a job as a bartender or hostess. I can't pay you that much right now but I can let you have your own room above the bar and you get three meals a day here." Nanami paused. "Say ten Roshtals a week plus tips." The phantom stared at her wanting to ask a question but not in front of the other woman. She nodded her acceptance at the proposal and took another sip of tea.  
  
"Well in that case why don't I show you where the bar is and your room. I'm afraid the rooms need some cleaning but..." She sighed. "I don't really have the time to help you out cleaning it. We open tomorrow."  
  
***  
  
Makoto walked down the path behind the university whistling a tuneless melody. Today was his second day back to work after the attack a week ago.  
  
He blamed himself for the attack. If he had just spent a little more time thinking ahead most of what had happened could have been prevented. He should have known that Nanami would react negatively to Sace living at his home. While he may have tried to ignore Nanami's more then friendship he had never really thought of her as much more then an old friend. It seemed so obvious now that she would be angry with him.   
  
It had also been his fault that Sace had the amplifier with her. Makoto had been using some off time with Sace studying her illusion ability. He had found more and more that everything, while it may look like magic, was actually an ordering of molecules unlike that ever considered on Earth. With careful study he had found that the Phantom Tribe's ability worked almost the same as the Priestess' lamps. The priestess channeled their will, Makoto didn't have the available technology out of the artifacts he had salvaged to do an EEG or a CAT scan. The energy of this will changed the nearby particles of certain elements or the energy of the bonds creating the appearance of magic. The Phantom Tribe didn't use an external item but still changed the optical image of particles changing the wavelength of perceived images. It followed that the Wanderers powers worked the same way, though he was still unsure of the exact properties that had caused the changes in everyone.  
Makoto had been using the opportunity to study Sace in an attempt to build a false lamp. He was at the most basic stage of that research creating a short energy amplifier that Sace had borrowed without his knowledge.  
  
When the confrontation with Nanami had occurred, the power that she had exhibited had been so much more then he had ever experienced even when fighting Galllus. The illusions created had been more then overwhelming, and so perfectly detailed as to be impossible to ignore.  
  
With a sigh Makoto wandered down the path and thought about what Fatora had asked of him. He knew he could cobble together something that would block the Phantom Tribe's ability. But doing so would almost certainly also render the Wanderers and the priestesses powerless. He would have to consult with Miz about it. Makoto changed directions heading back into town towards the fire station.  
  
The thing that puzzled him the most was Fatora actually asking him to do anything. The princess had generally ignored him the majority of the time, and the times she had deigned to notice his existence it was with an irritation based on her close resemblance to him. Instead when she had approached him today it had been with a dedication he had never seen from her before. Perhaps she was finally maturing into the respectable princess her sister was. Makoto thought about that idea for a second and then discarded it, most likely she just wanted revenge and was using the attack on him as a way to show that the threat from the tribe was still real.  
  
Which brought him right back to Sace and what to do about her. Not that there was much he could do. If she didn't want to be found he knew he wouldn't he able to find her. Mainly he wondered if she was okay, by now the amplifier would have run out of power but even with out it she could easily provide for herself. Sooner of later someone would notice that items disappeared when she was around and she would end up with a knife in her back. The main thing that worried him was if he would ever know if she were dead.  
  
The fire department came into view. The large red square building reflecting the setting sun in a bright blaze of glory. The building looking out of place besides the graceful town houses along side the river. Both of the large sliding doors were down showing both tankers were carefully birthed.  
  
Makoto along with the palace had helped fund this test fire department that Mr. Fujisawa ran. An investment that had already sold eight new pump flyers to the other allied nations and the Floristica town council was seriously considering adding a second station on the other side of town and financing it completely. Makoto no longer had any control over that side of the company. The designs for the pumps had been sold to the flyer manufacturers. Another smart decision that Ma'ya had made. The flyer manufacturers would have figured out the design sooner or later any ways, this way he made a few thousand Roshtals for every pump that was made. Just about enough to pay the maintenance on the department.  
  
Makoto walked in through the small side door past the two industrial sized flyers. Each one looking suspiciously like a beached tugboat. Two smaller out riders, the equivalent of ladder trucks, each with a single nozzle that could be connected through a long hose to the main pumpers. One of those new innovations that hadn't been sold to the flyer manufactures and which was still in the testing stages. Though by the way chief Fujisawa raved about them Makoto was looking at making another profitable sale.  
  
He nodded at two firemen who gave him a cheerful wave before continuing to inspect the long fire hoses. One of the major difficulties was still the fact that the hoses had a tendency to catch on fire or burst from a small hole. This was especially bad on the outriders whose hose was more exposed in the air. Makoto had signed off on a plan to have the second engineering and test section look into the problem. More and more, Makoto felt like that was all he was doing, delegating rather then actually building anything. Floristica was booming with all the newly recovered technology. The city was actually beginning an industrial revolution. New factories were springing up everyday along the outskirts of town. Anyone and everyone who wanted a job could easily find one.  
  
The continual expansion of the city ate up even more of his time as he warned the town council of potential problems resulting from urbanization. New pollution and zoning laws were being instituted almost weekly, most of them making his business harder, and costing him money, that he could have saved if he had just kept his mouth shut. But that wasn't something a Wanderer would do, they protected Roshtaria, in their own way.  
  
Makoto would have been completely despondent on the calls to his time if it wasn't for the fact that these things kept him busy enough to forget Ifurita. Another 427 days before the flux caused by the Eye of God settled enough that he could go and rescue her. All the machines were already in place for that event it was just a matter of waiting and it was better to have something to do, to help people, and if it made him rich enough to buy necessary equipment needed for a dimensional transporter all the better. That was until he had met Ma'ya.  
  
Ma'ya was the third daughter of a minor noble family who had been raised from birth for one purpose alone, to marry into a better family. Just one thing went wrong, she worshipped the Princess Fatora with an almost fanatical glee.  
The only thing she liked more then Fatora was money. Lots and lots of money, her family may have been nobility but they had been very poor nobility by anyone's standards. Her family had been slightly shocked when at a ball she had walked up to Makoto and asked to be his financial manager.  
  
This tall debutante standing in front of the famous Wanderer who had been trying to dodge all of the priestesses and Nanami. She had stared at him almost challengingly as one of her sisters had appeared out of the crowd to pull her back. At that time Makoto had been sending out feelers about taking on a financial partner but the only person he had really asked was Lons. Somewhere out of the crowd the advisor appeared nodding once before disappearing again into the mass of people.  
  
Makoto smiled knowing he had been set up and nodded his acceptance to the new manager.  
  
Last time Makoto had checked Ma'ya was the richest woman in all of Floristica. Her family failed to disown her for that simple reason that she could now buy and sell them out of her petty change. Makoto wished he could have been a fly on the wall for that conversation.  
  
He climbed the stairs up to the living quarters of the station. Wandering into the cozy little rec. area that was connected to the small kitchen. He continued saying "hi" to everyone he passed until he got to the Fujisawa residence and knocked on the sliding door.  
  
"Come in," Miz said softly. Makoto tried to open the door as softly as possible in case the twins were asleep. Miz sat perfectly at ease in the traditional Japanese apartment that Mr. Fujisawa had built in the fire station. An affection that suited the blushing bride persona she was portraying to a T. Makoto kept expecting one day to show up and see her wearing a kimono, but Nanami, the only one of them truly familiar with all the parts of that ceremonial robe, wasn't telling. Whether it was because she was holding it in reserve for a monetary gain or she just didn't want to wear one was anyone's guess.  
  
Beside Miz, who was cradling one of the twins sat the water priestess Quawool Tallus. She smiled up at Makoto shifting the other twin in a bundle of blankets. The two women, the first once a powerful priestess and the other her successor, looked like a pair of new brides discussing child care.  
  
Makoto shucked off his shoes and took the step up needed to enter the house proper. Miz waved him forward and he walked through the austere apartment until he reached the table the two women were sitting at. Makoto took a knee smiling at the women and the children they held.  
  
Miz seemed to have transformed in motherhood from a priestess to a mature goddess contentedly playing the role of a housewife. Makoto snorted at the thought truth was she was still active in the church. Had been instrumental as a behind the scenes negotiator for the fire department and who knows what other minor issues she had somehow became involved in since her retirement.  
  
Quawool seemed to have changed the least in the past year since he had met her. Her confidence at being a priestess had risen but marginally and she was constantly seeking out advice from Miz. At least that was what Makoto had thought until he had gone to the water festival during the summer. This quiet girl had become this powerful woman using powers that were amazing. Controlling forces that seemed to be beyond those that any mortal should be able to even use. To Makoto he had watched it as almost two separate people, one person watching on with awe and the scientist trying to figure out the forces at work. Either way it was an enormous usage of power. The entire time Quawool had looked calm and composed the perfect image of a priestess. The festival of water had been so different then the fire dance, let by Shayla Shayla on new years.  
  
"Hi Miz, Priestess Quawool." Makoto said trying to look at the babies.  
  
"Hello, Master Makoto." Quawool said nodding at the Wanderer as Miz sipped on a cup of tea watching the two people.  
  
"How is everything, priestess?" Makoto asked, making his tone of voice formal.  
  
Quawool sighed wishing for the thousandth time that she could take back that night three months ago.  
  
"Excuse me, but I have to go." The priestess of Water stood and made a hasty retreat out the door.  
  
"You are going to have to forgive her some day." Miz said when the priestess was gone.  
  
Makoto sighed, "She had no right to do that." But he nodded his agreement to the other woman's words.  
  
"What I came to talk to you about is sort of related." Makoto explained his conversation with Fatora and what she had asked of him and the possible ramifications to the priestesses. Miz sat back and just listened watching the babies. He finished up and looked at her watching her digest the possibilities.  
  
"I knew that you had researched the lamps, I didn't know how closely their power was linked to that of the Phantom Tribes." She paused considering something. "That information must never be known to the public."  
  
"Huh?" Makoto hadn't expected this reaction.  
  
"The people believe that our power comes from the Ancient Gods. We in the priesthood always knew that the power was technology based but also based on thought. It takes years of training to master the lamps. But to the common person it is magic. It gives them something to believe in. By the church existing we prove that the mistakes made by the Ancients will not be repeated. You can't take that faith from them." Makoto had rarely seen Miz passionate about anything since she finally got her wish and married sensei.  
  
"I guess I didn't think it out completely." Makoto said already apologizing.  
  
"You didn't make any commitments?"  
  
"No, but Fatora worried me. I have never seen her show such energy towards anything, well besides the normal one."  
  
"I really don't think either one of us can imagine the damage done to her by the tribe." Miz said, "They hurt her, but also I think they attacked her mind as well. Did you know how Fatora was originally captured?"  
  
"No."  
  
"I heard this from Allele, the court had gone on a picnic. With the hostility between the army and the Bugrum increasing Gallus had suggested that a show of normalcy was needed. You know how Rune was at that time. Anything that sounded reasonable by Gallus was the same as if she was saying it.  
  
"So the court headed off to the outskirts of Floristica in a large safe area surrounded by the Royal Guards. Everything was going perfectly until Rune from Fatora's point of view asked her and three guards to go check on Ura who had wandered off, after Fatora had yelled at the cat earlier. The thing was that none of this happened according to Rune. They had played with her mind so much that they reset the scene itself. What really happened was that Fatora walked into the brush for a second presumably to look at something and never returned. Everything that Fatora saw had been an illusion once she was separated from the group. They terrified her with a vision of something, she wouldn't even tell Allele what until she was a good distance from the camp and then grabbed her."  
  
Miz leaned back, "You have to understand that was just the least of the things they did to her."  
  
Makoto paused, this entire discussion had gone in a way he wasn't prepared for. But it had definitely showed him that he needed to think some more on the subject before deciding to help or not to help Fatora.  
  
The two of them talked for a little longer. He made the required inspection of the twins comparing them to Miz even though as far as he could tell they looked nothing like her and excused himself in the least time required with out being rude.  
  
By the time he finally left it had become dark. The lamplighters had already been by bathing the streets in the gentle light of the oil lamps. Makoto stared at the way the light fell into pools of safety around the posts as he walked down the empty streets.  
  
He turned a corner and their huddling in the light of the lamp using it as a shield from the darkness stood Sace. She gazed up at Makoto with huge eyes seeming on the verge of saying something.  
  
Makoto just smiled at her, "C'mon home, I missed you." The little girl gave him a cautious smile and before he could stop her, hugged the Wanderer. Makoto just smiled a little more and continued walking.  
  
***  
  
That night, late after everyone had gone to sleep the city came alive again as soldiers awoke from their sleep and began rushing through the streets. Blurry-eyed, Nanami was awakened by someone pounding on her door. She stumbled to the wooden door and opened it to see an officer of the Royal Guard.  
  
"Wanderer Nanami, your presence is required at once at the palace. A member of the Phantom Tribe tried to assassinate Princess Rune, she is dying."  
  
  
***  
  
Well I hoped you enjoyed chapter one. If you have any comments or suggestions please send them to STRIKESTWICE@hotmail.com. Thanks for reading.  
  



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